gazette column number 1

Early in 2003 I was offered the oppertunity of a new life, a change of country, culture lifestyle and occupation

The new life was to be in Hungary, a country I knew little (or less) about, I knew it was in Europe, even in eastern Europe, but if you had handed me a map and asked me to stick a pin in it, the result would have caused me some embarrassment.

I spoke to some people wiser and more well travelled than myself, and heard stories of visits in the early 90’s and a country still recovering from years of soviet occupation. This filled me with a mix of dread and overwhelming excitement, and so the tickets were bought and off I went.

Hungary was and Is beautiful, I arrived in the summer to incredible heat and the sort of reddish light I didn’t think I would find in Europe eastern or otherwise, the farm I was living at (along with others) was the stuff of dreams, grape vines and paprika growing in the garden, lizards scooting down the dusty unpaved paths leading to the village.

The countryside and the nearby city were beautiful, (abandoned Russian mini village aside) and so far removed from what I was used to it seemed almost otherworldly . This was the right decision I thought.

A few days later I discovered to my horror that the job that I had moved to a strange country for had fallen through, I was devastated, but decided there and then I wasn’t leaving to tears and waves, and returning tail between legs in the space of a week. And so language barrier and all I went looking for work.

What I found was the most hilarious mix of jobs possible bearing in mind my lack of experience in either, what I got was work making traditional Hungarian wooden furniture (which I knew nothing about) under guidance from a master tradesman, later selling what we made at craft fares across eastern Europe, and when there was nothing to sell, teaching English to Hungarian university students freelance. (Without of the necessary qualifications).

It was the start of an eventful year in Hungary in which I discovered many things, the demise of Freddie the pig taught me that the rules of animal slaughter differ massively here to there, That there are some languages that a man just cant pick up fluently, that selling watermelons roadside, and corn on the cob beachside are perfectly normal in Hungary.

But the most important discoverywas that my beloved Teesside also has breathtaking beauty, that grey skies, the chemical work laden vista, heavy industry and our less hot and exotic beaches all have something oddly magical about them, maybe not in a traditional sense but beauty all the same, this eventually being one of the reasons I moved home.